


More Than Enough

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, Coulson stuck between a rock and a hard place, F/M, Garrett hate, Guilt, Love, Rescues, Ward is evil, canonish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-11 00:53:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2046864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little ficlet spinning off just how did Coulson know that Skye holding hands with Ward meant Ward was a 'Wolf in the Fold'?  It goes from Only Light In The Darkness to Nothing Personal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	More Than Enough

"I should tell you something," she said suddenly as he's getting a status check on her progress.

She was sitting in Koenig's office connected to the system, trying to track the Fridge escapees.

He can tell by the way she says it that she's been thinking about it in the background of their real conversation. 

That, and what with everything going on, with the fact she's going to have to sit in Koenig's chair of doom shortly. 

She's barely talking.

"Go ahead," he said, saying the opposite of exactly what he was feeling. His thoughts were driving themselves towards one person at the moment, and that was Audrey Nathan. 

He was willing himself not to relive his last encounter with Daniels and how close it was. To try and not recall that look on Audrey's face.

Because SHIELD still meant something.

"Back there, at the Hub. I thought we weren't going to make it," she paused, staring at her screen.

"But we did," he said.

"I know," she continued, moving her fingers off the keyboard and against the surface of the desk. "Ward said..."

This was about Ward. Something was bothering her about Ward. Good. Something was bothering him about Ward as well, he wanted to hear this.

"Skye, whatever you have to say, it'll stay between us," he reassured her.

Ward was her S.O., after all.

"I kissed him."

That...was not what he was expecting to hear. 

Skye looked up at his long silence, seeing his knotted brows and troubled expression.

"I was just being impulsive," she said, anxious. "I know I shouldn't have. Really, I thought we might die."

He nodded his head at her slowly, stared ahead.

"Why are you telling me this?" he said flatly after a moment, glancing back at her. 

No, he really didn't want to delve into why she'd kissed Ward. No, he really didn't want to know what was in back of that. Not right now. 

Maybe not ever.

She looked away and blinked several times, searching the office to find something else to rest her eyes on.

"Ever since...what happened with Nash, and after listening to him talking about Garrett earlier..."

He watched her put her hand to her mouth, nervously rub her lip.

Coulson sighed and walked close to her, put a gentle hand on her arm.

"I'm sorry," she said. "You must be disappointed."

"Skye, I'm not going to tell you anything you haven't already thought yourself," he said, shrugging.

A confused look passed over her face, like she'd been expecting him to say something else. Did she want him to be angry? To tell her to stop acting like a rookie? What about protocols?

"You're right," he continued. "To trust your instincts."

She looked up at him, her eyes large and mixed with fear and guilt.

That's when he realized, this was about something else. 

"Splitting up the team, it's necessary, right?" she asked.

Koenig walked in tapped at the open door announcing himself.

"You're up, rookie," he said to Skye. He was shooting for levity but his expression had slid into something else when he walked in on Coulson standing over Skye with his hand on her arm.

Skye slowly stood, looked over at Coulson, then wordlessly left the room.

"Everything alright, sir?" asked Koenig, cocking his head.

Coulson was looking down at the floor, in some other thought. 

"Fine, Agent Koenig."

"Not so sure it looks fine."

Coulson's head snapped up, stared at him. Koenig was giving Coulson the same look he had when he'd threatened him earlier in this office. Koenig was a walking protocol manual. Boy, was he in a for a shock.

"She's concerned about Ward," Coulson said. "He's her S.O."

"Got it," said Koenig.

Coulson wondered what exactly what Koenig thought he'd got.

"As soon as everyone's had a turn in the chair, we'll gear up and take off."

"That's what we agreed to, so, I'll get back to doing my job."

"Good."

Coulson watched as Koenig walked away.

When he was gone, Coulson turned Skye's computer towards him and looked at the image of Daniels still on it.

Skye didn't want to be here with Ward. That was it, bottom line.

Whatever did or didn't happen between them, the level of violence that Ward was capable of, his feelings directed at her, and the chain of events leading up to today. This was the first time they'd had any breathing room. A moment to think and reflect.

What he knew for certain was that Skye wasn't getting anywhere near Daniels. Those were his own reasons. He won't risk it.

And Skye was right. Fury had provided a safe place. May and Koenig would be here, too.

Ward was going to have to sit in that chair. 

That was a comfort.

****

He thought she was safe.

He'd thought she was safe.

They had played him.

Ward. Garrett.

She was not safe. Not even close.

This kind of terror, he's tasted it before. Blunt and coppery. Creeping in around every.single.thought.

They were holding hands. 

It was everything she didn't want. That's what he told himself. That's what she'd been trying to tell him before.

Dammit. 

Pulling himself into the wheel well, he pushed his body against the side as the landing gear raised. His heart was trying to race ahead of his mind and it was losing. 

He was fighting distractions.

Ward had murdered Koenig without mercy, with all the finesse of a serial killer in a hurry. And now he had Skye.

Skye.

This was on him. His fault. 

He'd known something was wrong with Ward. Long before this. Suspected it and told himself Ward could control it. He'd seen specialists break and anyway he didn't want to think about that right now.

And May...

She was gone, because he couldn't handle his own temper and he still couldn't believe what she'd done. 

At least May wasn't dead. At least there was that.

Why hadn't he seen this coming? All the taunts along the way, holding her in your arms, inevitable, you and Skye.

Crawling through the service tunnels beneath the Bus, he was moving as quickly as possible thinking how they'd used Audrey against him, used his past, to blind him.

Garrett. That bastard. He was strangling him by proxy. 

Why had he stepped right into it? 

John knew him. Knew his weaknesses. All that time they'd spent in the field. Pulling each other out of scrapes, talking late or drinking, sometimes both.

His face twists thinking of the implications of what that mockery means. His feelings for her, the ways to exploit that.

No.

When they meet again, and they are going to meet, he might steal Ward's first idea. 

Two in the back of the head.

Unless Skye is there. If Skye is there, then...

Without question, he is in love with her. 

He finally admitted that to himself when he came up with this cockamamie plan. 

For all the bullshit that Garrett has put them through, it had proven this one thing to him.

He just wants to see her and touch her. Feel her alive.

It's not a weakness. He tells himself as he pushes the grate up above him and enters the MedLab.

And his chest twists. He used to not be like this. 

At the same time he's very, very sure it's not a weakness.

Somewhere on this plane is the one person who knows him. Not before he died, not after, but right now.

She sees him, beyond what he was, what he is, and still holds nothing back.

And that makes him fight.

He hurries down the corridor after checking the Holotable and finds the interrogation cell locked. She's in there. Ward's flying.

That steers his course.

The vengeance and all the other shit can come later.

He came here for her. 

His hand is on the door handle, he turns it, pulls it open, hands putting his weapon at the ready.

And her arms are around him, hugging him tightly. 

She might never know how he feels. He may never tell her, he's not sure, but he knows she's alive.

That's enough. It's more than enough.

"Did Ward hurt you?"


End file.
